1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates generally to computer vision and specifically to image recognition in a cloud environment.
2. Prior Art
Recognizing an image based on specific features is a task easily solved by the human eye and brain that has been trained to do so, but it is still not satisfactorily solved by computers, particularly in portable devices. However while the human brain is capable of image recognition, the human brain has a difficulty in memorizing large amounts of information, i.e. associating specific information related to a large amount of images. The information attached to each image can vary between many kinds of multimedia information such as sound, video, images, and textual information and can be easily retrieved from a server if the corresponding image is matched. Still further, this problem, particularly for computers, is made more difficult since the associated information can be dynamic and change for the same image under different conditions and with movement.
In addition, the existing computer based image recognition systems require large amounts of data, long processing times, large non-portable devices and can not function in real time or close to real time. Examples of such systems are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,628,837; 6,501,852; 8,073,808; and 8,064,707.